Burn it Down
Andrew McCutchen and Gerrit Cole are just memories to the Pirates organization. What remains is a scorching fire at PNC Park that all the water in the Allegheny can't put it out. The Pirates went from a championship contender 5 years ago back to the embarrassment the organization was for all of the 90's. The city and people of Pittsburgh are used to winning and raising championship trophies but the Pirates have missed out on the glory since 1979.
The Pirates are barely halfway through a 162 game season and they are sitting well back from .500 at .467 and 11.5 games out of first place. Based on the managerial moves made during the preseason no one is anticipating the sinking ship to plug it's holes. It's astounding a professional sports franchise would sell off it's top two players for essentially a box of cracker jacks and then make the following statement, “We entered the season with the optimistic belief that we had those traits of teams projected to win 78 to 82 games and could exceed that and be one of the teams that was in a postseason battle.”
The General Manager, Neil Huntington, made that comment which is saying he is okay with mediocrity and finishing in dead last. Honestly, that is where they will end up. They can definitely kiss that postseason "hope" goodbye. Just consider where the Boston Red Sox are right now with 63 wins before the All-Star break and the Milwaukee Brewers are sitting in first with 54 wins in the NL Central. From the outset of the season the Pirates front office expected to fail and were hoping for the best. If that is not absurd and disrespectful to the players who remain I don't know what is. Marte, Harrison, and Polanco are just a few of the top talent remaining and Huntington is even considering selling them off. You can even look in the developmental system and see a complete lack of preparation and Huntington even admits to that. The front office wants to maintain a profit but with no faith in your players and selling talent for a decoder ring causes you to be 26th in league attendance. Not only is attendance taking a beating but the Pirates had a grievance filed against them in February by the MLBPA for not "appropriately spending revenue sharing money."
The Pirates are dishonoring the championship teams from the 60's and 70's with the way the front office is behaving. Just imagine trading Roberto Clemente for a conditional draft pick or a sub 100 prospect.